This invention relates to, generally, a heat exchanger and, more specifically, a multi-channel compact heat exchanger for use in an aircraft or aerospace application.
Several heat exchangers are known to be used in an aerospace or aircraft application. For example, each heat exchanger of an aircraft can include three fluid circuits. More specifically, a first fluid circuit can deliver a cool fluid to a first power-electronics component for cooling the first component and receive the resulting (now hotter) fluid that has cooled the first component. A second fluid circuit can deliver a cool fluid to a second power-electronics component for cooling the second component and receive the resulting (now hotter) fluid that has cooled the second component. A third fluid circuit can provide a cooling fluid over the heat exchanger to cool the (now hotter) fluids from the first and second circuits within the heat exchanger. The resulting (now cooler) fluid can then be delivered outwardly of the aircraft or to the first and second components for cooling of the components.
A core of the heat exchanger can include also a multitude of very small channels or tubes (known as “mini-channels” or “mini-tubes”) that move a fluid between opposed ends of the core. The fluid supplied from the third circuit passes over the mini-tubes. In can be desired that the core have a certain complex structure.
However, conventional manufacturing methods—such as milling, sheet-bending, extruding, etc.—cannot produce some desired complex structures due to limitations of the methods with respect to, for instance, shape-formation, spacing, accuracy in production, variability in quality, and, ultimately, cost.